"It's a shame! I'll go with you," said Bessie Lavine, getting up with alacrity. "All right, Bess," said Wyn, cheerfully. "I am glad to have you go." The other girls had been a little distant to Bess since their return from the fishing trip; but not Wyn. She had given no sign that she was annoyed by Bessie's demeanor towards Polly Jarley. Nor did she "preach" while she and Bess paddled to the Forge. That was not Wynifred Mallory's way. She knew that, in this case, taking Bess to task for her treatment of Polly would do only harm. Bess had probably offered to come with Wyn for the special purpose of finding opportunity to argue the case with the captain of the club. But Wyn gave her no opening. The girls got to the Forge, did their errands, and started back in the canoes. Not until they got well out into the lake did they notice that there were angry clouds in the northwest. And very soon the sun became overcast, while the wind whipped down upon them sharply. "Oh, dear, me!" cried Bess. "Had we better turn back, Wyn?" "We're about as far from the Forge as we are from Green Knoll Camp," declared the other girl. "Then let's run ashore----" But they had struck right out into the lake from the landing, and it was a long way to land--even to the nearest point. While they were discussing the advisability of changing their course, there came a lull in the wind. "Maybe we'll get home all right!" cried Bess, and the two bent to their paddles again, driving the canoes toward distant Green Knoll. And almost at once--her words had scarcely passed--the wind whipped down upon them from a different direction. The surface of the lake was agitated angrily, and in a minute the two girls were in the midst of a whirlpool of jumping waves. In ordinary water the canoes were safe enough. But when Bess tried to paddle, a wave caught the blade and whirled the canoe around. She was up-set before she could scream. And in striving to drive her own craft to her friend's assistance, Wyn Mallory was caught likewise in a flaw, and she, too, plunged into the lake, while both canoes floated bottom upward. CHAPTER XIII A SERIOUS ADVENTURE Wyn Mallory was a pretty cool-headed girl; nor was this the first time she had been in an accident of this nature. Naturally, in learning to handle the light cedar craft as expertly as they did, the members of the Go-Ahead Club had much experience. While the weather was good the girls plied their paddles up and down the Wintinooski, but seldom was the river as rough as this open lake in which Wyn and Bessie Lavine had been so unexpectedly overturned. "Oh! am I not the unluckiest girl that--that ever happened?" wailed Bess, when she came up puffing. "N-o-no more than _I_, Bess," stammered Wyn. "Get your canoe, Wyn!" cried Bess. "Oh, yes; but we can't turn them over in this sea. Oh! isn't that horrid!" as another miniature wave slapped the captain of the club in the face and rolled her companion completely over.